September 27, 2011

Silverdale Tours has been revealed to be the latest company companies prepared to profit from transporting the English Defence League (EDL).

The EDL had planned a march through Tower Hamlets to the East London Mosque on 3rd September 2011. The planned demonstration was in the vein of loyalist Orange marches in Northern Ireland.

A heavy police presence kept groups separate throughout the day but, at around 6pm, a group of EDL supporters, travelling in a vehicle hired from Silverdale coaches, drove past the East London mosque hurling insults. The coach was pursued and set upon by a crowd who broke windows and hurled street furniture. As the news spread around Whitechapel, hundreds of local people poured onto the streets and confronted police who had moved in to protect the EDL.

In 2010, Ausden Clark, the official coach company for Leicester City football club, confirmed that it would no longer provide services to the EDL after Corporate Watch revealed they had transported EDL supporters to a rally in Bradford (see here).

In February 2011 Andrews of Tideswell, another company used by the EDL in Bradford, made a statement that it would not carry the EDL (or other protesters) again after several of its coaches had their tyres slashed by anti-fascists prior to the EDL's Luton demo.

Johnsons Coaches have contacted Corporate Watch and informed us that on the occasions that they have provided services to the EDL they have done so at the request of West Midlands police. The company did not, however, pledge not to provide services to the EDL in the future.